VisioBal

Project description

Visioball is a smart, hardware-based ball controlled through a mobile app, designed to help visually impaired children play and have fun.

The main design challenge was: how can we make a ball that visually impaired children can locate, control, and enjoy to make their life a little bit better.

Context

This project sits in the domain of assistive technology and inclusive design, with a focus on accessibility for visually impaired children. Play is an important part of child development, but many toys assume the child can see. Visually impaired children are often left out because most balls and games give no audio feedback, making them impossible to locate or use independently. Visioball addresses this gap by turning a simple ball into a smart, sound-driven device that a child can find and play with on their own.

The project also fits within the field of smart systems and embedded technology, since it combines physical hardware with a mobile app that controls it. This mix of software and hardware is what makes the product work in the real world.

We developed it together with stakeholders connected to the education and care of visually impaired children, who helped us understand the real needs and limitations of the existing ball. Their input shaped our priorities, especially around sound customization and reliability. Because the product is used by children, accessibility, safety, and ease of use were central to every decision, from removing setup friction to keeping the connection stable and secure.

Results

The project delivered two connected products: a fully functional Visioball with its hardware built out, and a mobile app that controls it over Bluetooth.

The biggest outcome is that the app and the physical ball now work together as one system, not just an early prototype. Users can change the ball's sounds, adjust settings, and rely on a stable connection - directly solving the main limitations the stakeholders raised at the start: inconsistent sound, no customization, and missing features.

The main insight is how central sound and reliability are for this user group: since the children can't see the ball, every interaction depends on clear audio and a connection that works every time. We also learned that connecting the software to the physical hardware was the hardest part of the project - getting the two sides to communicate reliably took real problem-solving across both the app and the ball.

About the project group

Our project group worked on Visioball over one semester.We came from different educational and national backgrounds in ICT, which gave us a mix of perspectives when solving problems. The team consists of 3 people. We worked in sprints, splitting the work between app development, design, and hardware, and met regularly with our stakeholders to keep the product aligned with the needs of visually impaired children.